Trip reports
Stodmarsh
Sunday, 24 May 2009
A goodly contingent of members made the long journey to east Kent. As we unpacked our optics, a yellowhammer nearby was singing; but it was the voices of Sylvia warblers that dominated the adjacent woodland. There were both common and lesser whitethroats, garden warblers and blackcaps. Several members including me encountered their first turtle doves of the year: 4 or 5 pairs. A cuckoo was heard. No nightingales however. In vain we scanned the extensive reedbeds for bearded tits, which was a pity as the weather was kind, with little breeze, and they ought to have been much more active. However, we had much better luck in this habitat with Acrocephalus warblers and reed buntings.
As we crossed the grazing marsh we enjoyed the sight of displaying lapwings and soaring skylarks. Another bird observed flying around in a tern-like way proved to be that very rarity we hoped to see - a black-winged pratincole. Smaller than a tern but like them a ground-nesting species, when it sat on the ground among the mallards it was totally dwarfed by them. It is a Scolopacid wader breeding in the steppes of Ukraine and Central Asia. Sadly its future looked grim for of course there was no hope of any female responding to its efforts.
Outstanding among the many ducks was a handsome drake garganey. Wader species included oystercatchers, avocets, black-tailed godwits, redshanks and greenshanks. We ate our picnic lunch on the grass at Grove Ferry, as hirundines swooped and glided overhead, then we returned slowly beside the river listening to the explosive song of Cettis's warbler. Lots of chiffchaffs and willow warblers here too, but alas no more turtle doves even though the habitat here is suitable.